SARS-like virus may be spreading from person to person

A SARS-like virus originating from the Middle East has infected eleven individuals, five of which have died, ABC news said. Ten of the eleven affected individuals traveled Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Pakistan, ABC news reported. Because the newest patient has not traveled to the Middle East, doctors believe the patient contracted it from a family member, NRP said. Health officials emphasize that the risk remains low to the general public, NPR said. No doctors or nurses who have dealt with those infected have caught the disease, suggesting that the virus is extremely poor from contracting from person to person, NPR said. "If (the) novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases," head of the respiratory diseases department at the U.K.'s Health Protection Agency said in a statement to ABC news. At it's worst this virus can cause acute pneumonia and kidney failure, ABC news said. Although the outbreak of SARS almost a decade ago lead to multiple medical advancements in the tracking and response to emerging diseases, "we have to keep watching this," said Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University.